We aim to influence the theory, analysis and practice of development worldwide to the benefit of disadvantaged people and countries, and to support international networks and local institutions involved in this endeavour.

Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.

“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”

We aim to influence the theory, analysis and practice of development worldwide to the benefit of disadvantaged people and countries, and to support international networks and local institutions involved in this endeavour.

We aim to influence the theory, analysis and practice of development worldwide to the benefit of disadvantaged people and countries, and to support international networks and local institutions involved in this endeavour.

Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.

“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”

Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.

“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”

Dr Cheryl Doss

Senior Departmental Lecturer in Development Economics and Associate Professor

Cheryl Doss is a development economist whose research focusses on issues related to assets, agriculture and gender with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Among her research projects, she co-leads the Gender Asset Gap Project, a large-scale effort to collect data and measure individual asset and wealth holdings for men and women in Ecuador, Ghana, and Karnataka, India. This research examines best practices for collecting individual data on assets and also quantifies women’s ownership of and control over productive assets. Currently, much of her work focusses on how to understand both joint and individual ownership and decision-making within rural households.

Cheryl Doss works with a range of international organizations on issues including best approaches for collecting sex-disaggregated data, gender and agriculture, intrahousehold resource allocation, and women’s asset ownership. Currently, she is the gender advisor for the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In recent years, she has also worked with UN Women, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, DFID , the Africa Development Bank, and the UN Foundation on issues of women’s asset ownership.

She has published widely in academic journals in economics, agricultural economics, and development studies.

Gender Asset Gap Project

Survey design and data collection methods for gender analysis

Analysing gender myths in rural development

Cheryl Doss teaches for the MPhil in Development Studies, teaching Economic Foundations, lecturing on the core course, and offering MP1 Thesis research workshops.

Prior to coming to ODID, she taught for 17 years at Yale University, where she taught the core economics courses to MA students in the International Relations programme. In addition, she taught a range of courses including Research Methods in African Studies, Economics of Africa, and Food Security and Agricultural Development.

Doss,Cheryl(with John McPeak, Christopher B. Barrett, Patti Kristjanson)(2009)
'Are Development Priorities Shared by Community Members? Results of a Ranking Exercise in East African Rangelands',
Journal of Development Studies451663-83